AMANDA SERRANO VIES FOR FOURTH WORLD TITLE AT WBO CONVENTION IN PUERTO RICO FACES HUNGARY’S ALEXANDRA LAZAR FOR VACANT WBO JUNIOR FEATHERWEIGHT CROWN ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18
New York, NY (10/17/16) – Female boxing sensation Amanda Serrano (29-1-1, 22 KOs) will fight in Puerto Rico for the second time this year when she takes on Hungarian Alexandra Lazar tomorrow, October 18, at the Hotel Caribe Hilton, in San Juan, during the annual WBO Convention, with the vacant WBO junior featherweight title at stake.
Now a three-division world champion, Serrano, who was born in Puerto Rico then raised in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, gravitated toward boxing after watching her older sister Cindy compete in the sport. Winning the 2008 New York Golden Gloves tournament, Serrano turned pro the following year and her exceptional athletic ability and power were quickly apparent. Ten of her 22 knockouts thus far have come in the first round.
In 2011, Serrano won the IBF world female junior lightweight title with a second-round stoppage of Kimberly Connor in New York. Traveling to Sweden in April 2012, Serrano suffered her only defeat via 10-round decision to the unbeaten hometown favorite Frida Wallberg for the WBC junior lightweight world title. Moving up to lightweight in 2014, Serrano seized the WBO world female 135lb. title on August 15, with a sixth-round knockout over Maria Maderna in Argentina. Signing with DiBella Entertainment in 2016, Serrano demolished Canadian Olivia Gerula inside one round on February 17, to claim the WBO world female featherweight title. She then retained that belt with a first-round stoppage of Colombian Calista Silgado on July 30, to become the first female boxer to defend a world title at Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, NY.
Moving back down to the junior featherweight limit to face Lazar, Serrano is attempting to tie Miguel Cotto’s record and become only the second Puerto Rican boxer, male or female, to win world titles in four weight classes. If successful, she will also be the second female boxer to accomplish such a feat.
“I’m super excited about becoming a four-division world champion and tying my idol Miguel Cotto’s record in that merit,” said Serrano. “I would like to thank Lou DiBella, the best promoter in the world, for this opportunity. Lou works so hard with my team to make sure my dreams materialize.”
“People may say that Amanda Serrano is one of the best female fighters in the world. I know that she is one of the best fighters in the world, period; Amanda truly has star potential,” said Lou DiBella, President of DiBella Entertainment. “I believe that not only will she tie the record to become the second Puerto Rican boxer to win world titles in four divisions, she will one day surpass it.”
The 20-year-old Lazar, of Budapest, turned pro in June of last year. The only blemish on her record is a loss to the French Karine Rinaldo in France, for the World Boxing Federation (WBF) female junior featherweight title on November 27, 2015, in a bout she took on a few days notice. Since then, Lazar has won four straight, including a 10-round unanimous decision victory over Kleopatra Tolnai, to win the WBC Youth female bantamweight title in her last bout on April 16.
Photos by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing
